Will Jesus forgive me of my sin after what I did?

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Permalink Reply by Mary O on January 21, 2015 at 3:38pm

I thought LT gave you a thorough and great answer.

I've done some things that I'm not really proud of before I accepted Jesus as my Lord. I usually don't tell a lot of the details because I don't want to give others ideas of things to try. God forgave me. I believe He has forgiven you.

Love,

Mary

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Permalink Reply by Amanda on January 21, 2015 at 1:38pm

Hi, Mark Stephen Berry. May I call you Mark? Welcome to the site. As I was reading your post, I noticed that one of your concerns is that you repeated this action more than once. In my personal opinion, I see signs of it having more to do with a condition like OCD and intrusive thoughts, and not necessarily that you were sinning, but I'm only speculating, and since you are also concerned that it was a sin, I wanted to share this article with you that I found quite a long time ago, and it helped me, and I hope it will also help ease your mind and bring you some peace.

Question: "Will God continue to forgive you if you commit the same sin over and over again?"

Answer: To best answer this question, we’re going to look at two powerful passages of Scripture. The first is found in the book of Psalms: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). One of the most effective tricks Satan plays on Christians is to convince us that our sins aren't really forgiven, despite the promise of God's Word. If we've truly received Jesus as Savior by faith, and still have that uneasy feeling wondering whether or not there is true forgiveness, that may be coming from demonic influences. Demons hate it when people are delivered from their grasp, and they try to plant seeds of doubt in our minds about the reality of our salvation. In his vast arsenal of tricks, one of Satan’s biggest tools is to constantly remind us of our past transgressions, and he uses those to prove that God couldn't possibly forgive or restore us. The devil's attacks make it a real challenge for us to simply rest in the promises of God and trust His love.

But this psalm also tells us that God not only forgives our sins, but removes them completely from His presence. This is a profound thing! Without question, this is a difficult concept for humans to grasp, which is why it's so easy for us to worry and wonder about forgiveness instead of just accepting it. The key lies in simply giving up our doubts and our feelings of guilt and resting in His promises of forgiveness.

Another passage is 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” What an incredible promise! God forgives His children when they sin if only they come to Him and in an attitude of repentance and ask to be forgiven. God’s grace is so great that it can cleanse the sinner from his sin so that he becomes a child of God. Even when we stumble, we can be forgiven still.

In Matthew 18:21-22, we read, "Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.’” Peter was probably thinking that he was being generous. Rather than repay a person who had committed a sin against him with equal retribution, Peter suggested giving the brother some leeway, say, up to seven times. But the eighth time, forgiveness and grace would run out. But Christ challenged the rules of Peter’s suggested economy of grace by saying that forgiveness is infinite for those who are truly seeking it. This is only possible because of the infinite grace of God which is made possible through the shed blood of Christ on the cross. Because of Christ’s forgiving power, we can always be made clean after we sin if we humbly seek it.

At the same time, it must be noted that it is not biblical for a person to sin habitually and continually as a lifestyle and still be a believer (1 John 3:8-9). This is why Paul admonishes us to “examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5). As Christians, we do stumble, but we do not live a lifestyle of continual, unrepentant sin. All of us have weaknesses and can fall into sin, even if we don’t want to. Even the apostle Paul did what he didn’t want to do because of the sin at work in his body (Romans 7:15). Like Paul, the response of the believer is to hate the sin, repent of it and ask for divine grace to overcome it (Romans 7:24-25). Although we need not fall because of God’s sufficient grace, sometimes we do because we rely upon our insufficient strength. When our faith grows weak and, like Peter, we deny our Lord in word or in life, even then there is still a chance to repent and be forgiven of our sin.

Another one of Satan’s tricks is to get us to think that there is no hope, that there is no possibility that we can be forgiven, healed, and restored. He will try to get us to feel consumed and trapped by guilt so that we do not feel worthy of God’s forgiveness any longer. But since when were we ever worthy of God’s grace? God loved us, forgave us and chose us to be in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4-6), not because of anything we did, but “in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:12). We must always keep in mind that there is no place we can go that God’s grace cannot reach, and there is no depth to which we can sink that God is no longer able to pull us out. His grace is greater than all of our sin. Whether we are just starting to wander off course or we are already sinking and drowning in our sin, grace can be received.

Grace is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8). When we sin, the Spirit will convict us of sin such that a godly sorrow will result (2 Corinthians 7:10-11). He will not condemn our souls as if there is no hope, for there is no longer any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). The Spirit’s conviction within us is a movement of love and grace. Grace is not an excuse to sin (Romans 6:1-2), and it dare not be abused, meaning that sin must be called “sin,” and it cannot be treated as if it is harmless or inoffensive. Unrepentant believers need to be lovingly confronted and guided to freedom, and unbelievers need to be told that they need to repent. Yet let us also emphasize the remedy, for we have been given grace upon grace (John 1:16). Grace is how we live, how we are saved, how we are sanctified, and how we will be kept and glorified. Let us receive grace when we sin by repenting and confessing our sin to God. Why live a sinful life when Christ offers to make us whole and right in the eyes of God? http://www.gotquestions.org/forgive-same-sin.html

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Permalink Reply by Mark Stephen Berry on January 21, 2015 at 4:38pm

Hi Amanda, Yes please do call me Mark.  thank you for your kind welcome.  I am aware I do have OCD with certain things, particularly with food e.t.c.    whether or not I repeated this action more than once  due to OCD I can't be sure, but I did think I've done it once so I may as well do it again, It could have been intrusive thoughts and/or  OCD , Satan tempting me or me just being silly and doing it anyway. I don't really know.

I've truly received Jesus Christ as savior by faith, I do well believe I have a demonic stronghold over my life, I have bad anxiety for years and I feel I'm not where I should be in life, I'm 23 and never had a girlfriend, a job, haven't really been in education,  still live at home. I feel very anxious most days and often wake up shaking and feel shaky all day. Perhaps it is a demonic influence causing doubt in my mind. I simply want to rest in the promises of God and trust in His love. 

I think it is awesome that God forgives our sin's and even greater that he erases them from his presence. I do need to just accept God'as forgiveness and ignore the doubts from Satan. I do need to rest in his promise of forgiveness.

1 John 1:9 is an incredible promise indeed.  It is an awesome thing to know

Christ's forgiving power is indeed an absolute incredible honor to us as sinners, the fact he died on the cross shows how much he loves us.

I understand that it is not Biblical for a person to repeat sin habitually and conditionally as a lifestyle and still be a believer , I don't think it's very nice for God for a person to do so just because they know thy will be forgiven when they repent and seek forgiveness. 

Satan does indeed try and make us thin there in no hope, I think he may be trying that one on me, but I will just ignore him and try very hard to just rest in God's promise of Forgiveness.  I understand his grace is much greater than all of our sin, that is very reassuring. 

I accept Grace from God, I just need to cast out the spirit of doubt in Jesus name. I try and talk to people about God but some simply don't want to listen and repent and seek Jesus, so I pray for them and ask God to send out a message of love and conviction for them to change.

I pity the people who are deceived into taking the mark of the beast on the right hand or forehead , They will know of the warning against it but many will go ahead and get the mark anyway, many to buy and sell but overall it will be to worship the beast. They will be condemned  to hell forever for accepting the mark. the Antichrist will appeal to many of them and they will be under his full control after taking his demonic mark, I just hope God takes me to Heaven before I even get the chance to see it happening in the world , if we are that close it will be in our lifetime I need to completely prepare myself for the Rapture, and get fully right with Jesus

Many thanks for your reply, it was extremely interesting and informative, God bless you for your help 

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Permalink Reply by Amanda on January 21, 2015 at 5:09pm

Mark,

It makes me happy to know the reply helped you. 

Regarding demonic strongholds, I think that one of the most difficult truths for some people to accept is that we do have spiritual enemies that war against us. It was difficult, at least, for me to accept it, but I felt encouraged when I learned that Satan and demons can only go so far because God is sovereign over them. We should take them seriously, but their authority is delegated and limited by God. So, the advice others have given you here in this forum regarding the mark of the beast is sound, too, in my opinion, and for that very reason. It really does come down to trusting in God.

Martin Luther once said:

"And though this world with devils filled
Should threaten to undo us
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim
We tremble not for him,
His rage we can endure
For low his doom is sure.
One little word will fell him."

I think trusting in God is something I just can't do on my own. I need His help with it. That's interesting, isn't it? That I must learn to trust in God to help me learn to trust in God? LOL.

I'm doing it, if only it is a crawl at times, then a walk, with tiny, timid steps, one moment at a time.

Back home, in my childhood, I remember my mother kept an ornamental plate hanging on the wall that contained the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

It was years later when I finally learned that there's another part to that prayer which maybe you haven't heard, either. It goes on to say:

Living one day at a time; 
enjoying one moment at a time; 
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; 
taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it; 
trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will; 
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next. 
Amen. Written by Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)

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